Rock On

Rock On

February 18th, 2010

Self-initiated work leads to a musical break for Ratio.
(ProDesign 104, with additional images)

Frank Black monogram (unused).

Here’s a rock-related story. Peter Oxley is a rock climber. So too, as it happens, is the Pixies’ band manager. In a slightly convoluted chain of events, Oxley, creative director of Christchurch design firm Ratio, who knew the band manager from London, got thinking about Pixies frontman Frank Black (or Black Francis as he’s sometimes known). In particular, he got thinking about a monogram, as he’d been told that Black, with his wife Violet Clark, was about to set up a new record company.Oxley eventually designed a monogram (above) – a play on an interrelation between the letter ‘f’ and a musical note. He also designed a poster, incorporating the logotype into a circular, clock-resembling piece.
“I really liked the poster’s time-based image, created by just using the monogram. It envisages the idea of how much his music inspired me over the years and how much he is totally dedicated to producing great work.”

The designer sent the works to Black, but they weren’t used – Black subsequently changed his name back from Frank Black to Black Francis (his given name is actually Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV). But this is not a bad news story. The singer, remembering Oxley’s unsolicited work, recently approached him to design some additional material for Grand Duchy, a rock band formed in 2008 by Black Francis and his wife Violet Clark. “It was due to the monogram and this poster image that he commissioned me directly for the Grand Duchy work,” says Oxley.

“He remembered the earlier work and this led to Ratio designing and art-directing their new CD – Petits Fours. The main element of interest with that project was the design of a bespoke font for the band that supported the idea of light and dark between Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis) and Violet Clarke within the band.” MB